Daoist orders and temples · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Wudang hermitages

The Wudang mountains in the south of Junzhou, on the upper Han, hold Daoist hermitages and small temples tied to the cult of Zhenwu (the Perfected Warrior, called Xuanwu until the Song renamed him), whom the Song court honoured from Zhenzong's reign (recalled).

What stood on the mountain in 1200 is not pinned: the great Wudang temple complexes belong to the Ming (early fifteenth century) and the Wudang martial legend is later still. Junzhou below it is a frontier post with the Jin a short march to the north.

Who holds it

Title
Daoist hermits and temple keepers; no lord, names not known
Since
not pinned
Born
not known
Confidence
low

Name not known for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

The Song court by title; locally the prefect of the prefecture it stands in.

What it holds

  • Hermitages and small temple lands (extent not known)

How it was acquired

Old hermit tradition; Song court honours (recalled).

Allies and rivals

Under the prefect of Junzhou.

How things stand that morning

Quiet; no event dated.

Wealth

Offerings; no figures.

Military

No armed force: tenants, lay servants and students. No numbers.

Threats

  • A Jin move down the Dan River (none expected while the peace of 1165 holds)

Where the sources disagree

  • Not part of the 1200 state: the Yongle-era (1412 to 1418) building of the Wudang palaces.

Evidence: Background knowledge of the Song religious and academic houses, recalled and not re-read in this pass because web access closed, except where a source is named in the record. No abbot, master or academy head is named for 1 January 1200 in anything we could reach. The Ming Wudang complex is far later and must not be projected back.

On the map: A disc; the extent of the 1200 hermitages is not known.

Primary sources for Southern Song

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
  • Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
  • Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
  • History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
  • History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
  • History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
  • History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
  • Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

12 more in the sources library for South China.

Sources and studies

  1. Background knowledge of Southern Song administration and the middle Yangtze (Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2; Hymes; Clark; Von Glahn; Bol; the travel diaries of Lu You, 1170, and Fan Chengda, 1177), recalled and not re-read in this pass

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.